Diablo II

Multiplayer

As if the single-player game wasn't enough to waste two weeks of my life! Someone please, I need an intervention!

Multiplayer (post-patch) is on par with a Quake 3 frag fest. Not in style, of course, but on the fun-factor level. Using Battle.net makes finding a group of players easy and the TCP/IP support makes hosting your own games a snap. As you travel around and kick major ass you all grow in power and skill.
And the mix of character abilities makes every player an integral part of the unit.

Great features include the ability to team up and share all the earned experience points. Some magic items come in sets that can be traded for with other players. Blizzard has also incorporated some audio cue buttons that alleviate much of the typing normally associated with a multiplayer RPG. One keystroke and all players will
hear your character say things like, "Follow me" or "Help!" Great idea!

Battle.net has some secure servers where all characters are stored on the server side. This eliminates character hacking and cheating. Thank goodness,
because the first Diablo was notorious for its hackmasters. Also cool are the
"Hardcore Characters." These characters have only one life to live and are ranked on Battle.net. If these characters die, they're gone--for good. Say goodbye. Hasta la vista Baby!

It's still Diablo … again

As far as graphics, size and scope of the game goes, Diablo II has come a long way. Blizzard has certainly produced a best seller, but have they produced a masterpiece? It's hard to say. Here's why.

Warning: Game spoilers ahead. Skip to the "Bugs" heading to avoid them.

The game is addictive and fun but my complaints are more esoteric. Well, I'm not exactly sure what esoteric means but it sounds fancy. Anyway, why did Blizzard take all the effort I
put into the first game and make it mean absolutely nothing? I beat Diablo 10 times and had a character that reached absurd levels.
Diablo II has made all that work moot, useless and devoid of worthiness. They stripped it of merit by making the character from the first game a tool. The story turned my hero into a
dupe.

And what about the fight against Diablo
himself? It was a let down in the first game and it is again in the sequel. I won't say anymore than
this about it: Killing Diablo in part two is the same as in part one except that Diablo looks better graphically and required 94 more mouse clicks and 8 more healing potions to defeat.

Finally, the game didn't really evolve. It's bigger, better and just as
fun but even with the character diversity, the game remains the same. Remember the changes from Warcraft to Warcraft II? How about the changes coming in Warcraft 3!? Where is that evolutionary thinking in Diablo II? It isn't there. The game is essentially the same game but with more "stuff."

So to answer my question, did Blizzard create a masterpiece? My answer is no. They did,
however, make another great game that is sure to win awards come the end of the year.

Bugaboos

Perhaps the funniest bug I encountered was when the game would start animating my hero in reverse. He looked like he was moon walking. Watch out Michael Jackson! It wasn't at all annoying because I could still play the game. It was just kind of funny.

Worse was when I first installed the game all I got was a bunch of static for graphics. I updated my drivers to the most recent version but that did not work. I was forced to install the beta detonator 2 drivers to get things going. And Caesar had a crash bug (which I didn't encounter) that prevented him from
starting Diablo II more than once without rebooting.
There was a huge discussion in the Gaming
Forum about this (specific thread is here),
and in the end it came to appear as though NVIDIA's drivers were to blame.

Battle.net has seen its share of
troubles but poor performance and being dropped from your game were the most
prevalent nags. But patches keep coming out to address all these problems. My review and bug encounters are based solely on version
1.1.

Put simply, it was a very un-Blizzard-like release as far as bugs
go, and forums across the 'net have been filled with folks experience
problems with video card drivers and CD-ROM support.

Conclusion

More great Diablo gameplay will draw you in and not let go until
The Lord of Terror himself is defeated. Then, it'll draw you in again and again and again. Blizzard has another winner on their hands that will attract RPGers and action gamers of all kinds.
It's the original Diablo with quite a bit of polish, and that can only be
a good thing.